top of page

17. Celebrating South Sudan's Tribal Diversity

My life alongside God's word, volume 3. 'Everybody living happily together' section.


– by Manase Woja Alfred

God created every people – all tribes, clans and families to live together because they are all created in His image and placed to live in this world together. Every tribe is created in order to worship God. Tribes are created for God’s glory.


As South Sudanese we should be proud and celebrate because each one of us belongs to a specific tribe. You should celebrate because God gives you your tribe and it’s name.

God knows your tribe. We are created and decreed to live together as different unique tribes in South Sudan. These uniquely different tribes have corporately formed one nation

called South Sudan. Because of this we have a great reason to celebrate.


South Sudan would not be complete if one tribe were omitted from it. No tribe should look down upon any other tribe. No tribe should claim that it is better than the other

tribes. Whether a tribe is small or big, all are created by God to live together and to glorify God who has placed them in South Sudan to live peacefully together as one great nation.


All tribes in South Sudan must accept one another as a unique creation by God. Despite differences in cultures, languages, colour, shape and height, we must accept each

other as together the people of our one beloved nation.


The Bible says that before Genesis 11 the whole world was one tribe speaking one language. Because the people were one they decided to build a city that would reach heaven to make a name, a reputation for themselves. God saw what they were doing and commented that if as one people of one language men were doing that, nothing would be impossible for them to do. So God scattered them and confused their language. People were scattered all over the world, Genesis 11:1-9. This resulted in the formation of different tribes speaking a whole variety of languages. That was how your tribe came to exist in what is now South Sudan. Your tribe was placed here in South Sudan to be one of the tribes that form our new nation of that name.


I have a reason to celebrate because God created me in a tribe of Kakwa, a name given by God to a tribe that has settled in a place called Yei, a name also given by God. Kakwa

is among the tribes that formed South Sudan. I must celebrate because Kakwa is one of the tribes that God has created to live together with all the other tribes in South Sudan. This may be easier said than done and so I want to provoke our thinking about this.


For us to live together in this prosperous, green, beautiful and unique land of South Sudan, there are practical steps, which can lead us into a better society. Among them are the following:


a) As South Sudanese we must accept one another as people of different tribes called to live together as one nation.


b) We must respect all tribes. We should not mock or look down upon other tribes by giving them caricatures and critical names. As South Sudanese we all know with which names we mock other tribes. This is wrong and must stop.


c) No tribe should feel inferior or superior to the other tribes.


d) Tribe should never be made as a standard or base for qualification or appointment.


e) Tribe should not be used to discriminate between the people of one nation.


f) There should be intermarriages freely among all the tribes of South Sudan.


g) Anybody from any tribe should be free to live, work and own land, in any part of South Sudan whether he/she belongs to the dominant tribe living in that particular place or not.


h) Each tribe should respect and accept other tribes’ cultures, languages and traditions. No culture, language and tradition are better than others. We should be proud in South Sudan because we have such rich languages, cultures and other traditions. No culture, language or tradition from other tribes should be forced upon any other tribe.


i) No tribe should oppress any other tribe.


If we follow these among many other practical steps, we will build a strong, prosperous and peaceful South Sudan.


May God help us to do so, determinedly, securely and well.

Commentaires


bottom of page